Tag Archives: jersey

A little damp looking out of the window at breakfast on our first day in Jersey

Gluten-free cider of course 🙂

After breakfast we decided to go and explore St Helier, a ten minute walk from the hotel. Fortunately the taxi driver had given us general directions to find the town centre and we were soon browsing the shops, doing some reconnaissance for Abby before finding a cafe on the promenade for a mid-morning coffee. I texted my sister to let her know we’d arrived and said we’d meet her at lunchtime, then did some more wandering before grabbing a drink at one of the pubs near the high street. Whilst we sat outside, we watched someone being interviewed outside the council offices nearby (and watched it again on the local news channel later that evening).

We met up with Lesley for some lunch before heading back to the hotel for a rest, then ventured out for an Italian meal at La Cantina, which we had spotted served gluten-free pasta. I naively telephoned to book a table before we set off but needn’t have bothered as it was very quiet, being a mid-week evening. The meal was excellent. We took a slow stroll back to the hotel for an early night.

Gorey Harbour

It would have been rude to drink the tea before the champagne

The next morning we picked up Lesley’s car and went exploring the island, including visiting Gorey and the Jersey Pearl showroom before stopping at St Brelade’s Bay for some lunch. I dropped Tina off at the hotel (she’d not slept well during the night) and I took Lesley’s car back and picked up some wine for the later in the day (we were spending the evening at her house, with Jason, Iona, Isla and a takeaway). We met Lesley after work, picked up the girls from school and then drove back to Lesley’s house in St Peter’s. The island is so small, it only takes 30 minutes to get to most places from St Helier. Lesley’s girls were pleased to see us and I was soon helping make a car out of a cardboard box (isn’t that what uncle’s are supposed to do?). After enjoying a lovely curry, some cider and wine we eventually headed back to the hotel, via a taxi and both slept much better after an exhausting day.

We managed to get a good walk in the next morning before the rain set in for the day so returned back to the hotel before getting a lift by Lesley to Tiffin for afternoon tea (and a glass of champagne). When we went to pay we had a nice surprise as Lesley had rung them whilst we were there and paid for the meal. Thanks sis!

We visited Pizza Express in St Helier for our evening meal before retiring back to our hotel, fully stuffed from all the food we’d eaten throughout the day.

Last minute purchase for a special lady

Check out at the hotel was at 10am so following breakfast we packed up our cases and left them at reception before wandering into town for the final time. Again the rain started to fall so we dodged the showers by visiting any of the shops to try to keep dry. We had about an hour left to kill so started to look in the windows of the jewellery shops, of which Jersey is quite famous for.

During our stay Tina had mentioned about getting an eternity ring and spotted one she like in a shop window, so in we went. Thirty minutes later she was leaving the same shop wearing her new, diamond encrusted white gold ring, with my wallet significantly lighter!

And then it was time to leave Jersey, with getting home far less hassle than getting there.

I’ll be heading back there in a couple of weeks when I’ll be helping Abby to relocate. I’ll be travelling by sea this time so they’ll be no problems with fog, I just hope the Channel is relatively flat as I’m not a great sailor!

Back in September we decided to gamble on booking flights and a hotel to Jersey to coincide with Abby’s relocation to the Channel Island following her managing to secure a job there. Unfortunately her start date was delayed by paperwork which meant we had travel there Abbyless. Oh well, we would just have to have a holiday instead.

We had managed to pick up reasonably priced EasyJet flights from Gatwick and decided to let the train take the strain, rather than have to suffer the hassle of driving around the M25, especially as we would be returning during Friday rush hour. Having never used a ‘no frills’ airline before, I wasn’t quite sure what to expect but was impressed by the online booking process, the dedicated app and of course the price.

The downside to using a budget airline is that you need to avoid taking hold baggage as it bumps the price considerably, but that wasn’t an issue for us as we were only going to be away for five nights. As the flights got closer we were able to check-in online using the iPhone app, which presents the boarding passes in an electronic form, something I’ve never used before and a little scary as you don’t have physical paperwork to fall back on. Similarly I’d booked the train tickets online and the accommodation using my favourite hotel booking app (Booking.com). Don’t you just love the 21st century.

Finally the day of travel arrived, and after dropping Rio at the kennels, we set off towards Bedford Station for our two hour train ride to Gatwick. We did have a little apprehension about the flight as the weather wasn’t looking good, with thick fog affecting large parts of the South of England causing flight cancellations, but as we were not actually flying until mid-afternoon there was plenty of time for it to burn off.

The train left on time and soon we were heading South, with visibility still poor but brightening up. As we got closer to London I checked the app and all was looking good until suddenly a message flashed up on the screen. I stared in disbelief as the words ‘flight cancelled‘ blinked at me. The app gave me two button options ‘Re-book‘ or ‘Refund‘ but by this time we were reaching London and I’d lost all mobile signal. I made a snap decision and suggested we leave the train at St Pancras and consider our options.

After some thinking, some failed attempts to get through to EasyJet we decided to try to re-book our flight to later in the day. With return train tickets already paid for, a hotel in Jersey booked for the week and the car park paid for for five days, we were really committed to being away for the week. But unfortunately there were no flights available on the day due to the impact of the weather. We re-booked for the early morning flight the next day.

Next problem was where to stay. I got straight on to Booking and found a Premier Inn close to the airport and we re-boarded the Gatwick train, not before trying to get through to EasyJet just to see if there was any chance of getting a flight later in the evening. We couldn’t get through!

On arrival at Gatwick we made our way to our unplanned hotel accommodation and soon found the bar for a well-deserved glass of wine, followed by a nice meal and an early night in order to be fresh for our five o clock alarm call.

Fortunately the rearranged flight suffered no hold-ups and we were checking into our hotel in Jersey, even managing to make breakfast, which went down really well. I checked my mails and noticed a mail from EasyJet apologising for the cancellation of the flight and asking for feedback. That was something I would definitely be giving but not until later in the day when I had time to think of a suitable response.